1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pitcher utensils for cutting potatoes, vegetables, fruit and the like into portions such as slices, of the kind which comprises a back plate which is solidly connected to two parallel rails, a removable front plate which is arranged between the rails and whose surface lies parallel to and at a distance beneath and in front of the surface of the back plate, and a blade arranged between the two plates, at least part of whose cutting edge lies in the same plane as the surface of the back plate.
2. Prior Art
To allow slices of differing thicknesses to be cut, it is known to exchange the front plate of a slicer for a different one, thus altering the distance perpendicular to the direction of operation between the front plate and the cutting edge of the blade, which distance determines the thickness of the slices which are cut. There is a disadvantage however in that there has to be a special front plate for each depth of cut required, which makes the utensil very expensive to produce and very cumbersome to use.
It is also known to place a second fore-plate on the front plate in order once again to alter the depth of cut. Even with a utensil of this nature a large number of additional plates is needed. Yet again, it is known to use front plates with rails at the sides which project from the face of the plate so that slices of two different thicknesses can be obtained depending on which side of the plate is uppermost. If however slices of several thicknesses are required further plates once again become necessary.